iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 1h

Today’s game: Keep The Faith, a 2-5 player game about how religions transform over time. Our religion featured a magical monkey who ate a magical acorn (there was some schismatic tension over this) and pooped a tree of life. Design Greg Loring-Albright. Published by CMU Press.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Today’s arrival: Terry Brighton’s Hell Riders: The True Story of the Charge of the Light Brigade.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Today’s game: Coalitions (6 players), by Andy Rourke, published by Phalanx. I really enjoyed this. Some smart design choices here - especially with regards to the diplomacy system.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Today’s game: Witch Hunt 1649 (Martha McGill, CMU Press). It was sort of mean. Played with 6 people (two of whom went on trial and were executed, one of whom was exiled).

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Today’s delivery: The Weimar Republic (Gunnar Holmback, GMT Games).

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Today’s arrival: Frank McDonough, The Weimar Yesrs: Rise and Fall 1918-1933.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Sessions of Narrative-Driven Analog Games @ RPI - students are playing a range of story-making games such as Nanofictionary, Once Upon a Time, The Storymatic, PitchStorm, Inventory Management, For the Queen, and Untold Adventures Await, in preparation for demoing their own designs.

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Reposted by Maurice Suckling

Stuart Ellis-Gorman @drcrossbows.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I'm bad at self promotion, but did you know that I'm also an editor and that you can hire me? I have edited history books (most recently for Osprey) and TTRPGs (for Modiphius and Exalted Funeral among others). Full list: www.stuartellisgorman.com/editor Can contact me via website or here!

stuartellisgorman.com

Editor — Stuart Ellis-Gorman

I am a historian, writer, and editor specialising in tabletop RPGs and board games. This page lists the projects I have worked on as both a writer and an editor.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Today’s game, The Reason Why, a prototype about allocating blame for the Charge of the Light Brigade. Many mechanical things to alter, but the narrative and broad design concept appears to hang together.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Latest arrivals (spot the odd one out):

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

From Pea Ridge (1980), optional rule:

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Yesterday’s arrival, Nine Space Games, by Jason Morningstar. Serious contender for being part of my Narrative-Driven Analog Games course this semester.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Unpacking mail that came for me while away from home this summer #6: The Weimar Republic, published by GMT Games.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Unpacking mail that came for me while away from home this summer #5: Education and Analog Role-Playing Games, Edited by Susan Haarman.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Unpacking mail that came for me while away from home this summer #4: Introduction to Global Military History, Jeremy Black.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Unpacking mail that came for me while away from home this summer #3: Coaltions (and expansions) from Phalanx.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Unpacking mail that came for me while away from home this summer #2: Hunt for Blackbeard from Fort Circle Games.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Unpacking mail that came for me while away from home this summer #1: Bretwalda (and expansions) from Phalanx.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Today’s arrival: Designing Historical Games For Classrooms, by my friend, @gamingthepast.bsky.social

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Today’s adventure: travelling from Oxford to London:

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Today’s game at BrotherCon, Sheffield, UK, Imperial Struggle.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Today’s games at BrotherCon, Sheffield UK: War of the Ring (Free Peoples get the Ring to Mordor a turn before Lorien falls), then we begin We The People (and make all manner of mistakes on our first run out). Much fun had by all (both of us).

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Yesterday’s game - taking this prototype out for a walk - Fall of Camelot.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Read of the last month: Battle cry of Freedom. Excellent single volume on the war, covering not just the military dimension, but also politics and social history. I recommend it to those interested in the topic.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Today’s game: Game of the Generals by Sofronio H. Pasola Jr. (1970). Essentially similar to L’Attaque/Stratego, but flags (HQs) can move and if they reach the opponent’s back line and aren’t challenged that’s a win. 2 spies, who defeat everyone apart from privates also keeping things fun.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Yesterday’s read: Farmer Giles of Ham. Beautiful illustrations in this, by Pauline Baynes.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Today’s read: Smith of Wootton Major. Written 1964/5.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Today’s reading: Leaf By Niggle (by Tolkien) - it’s like reading a response to Kafka - I believe scholars generally consider it an allegory of his anxieties that he will never finish LotR:

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Publication day. Thank you to @enwright.bsky.social, Iain, and Nick for making this so. I think this is a meaningful contribution to the field of historical games. My chapter is on historical rhetoric and board games, with a case study on Crisis: 1914. lnkd.in/evi5Z7Nw

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Progress assembling my Fall of Camelot prototype:

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Assembling a prototype for my Fall of Camelot game:

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Reposted by Maurice Suckling

Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Tomorrow is the 96th birthday of René Soriano, the designer of Kerplunk & ~60 other board games he had never been credited for. I found him, & in this video he tells the story of a remarkable career ranging from dexterity games to some of the earliest Star Wars licensed games. youtu.be/dTepZ7qM24Q

youtu.be

GRAVITY IS FREE: the games of René Soriano

YouTube video by Hollandspiele

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Two other games from this semester’s historical simulations class Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - one on the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, and the other on the development of the homophole movement in the U.S. prior to Stonewall:

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Today’s development: Assembling the prototype for The Reason Why, a 5 player game about allocating blame for the Charge of the Light Brigade:

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Today’s development: physical prototype of my Bartleby the Scrivener game arrived:

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Monday’s game in Historical Simulation: Weird An’ Mire of Letters (selected writers trying to balance inspiration, community, and finances during the Great Depression).

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Today’s game in Historical Simulations (a prototype by a PhD student) on the Chinese Educational Mission (1872 to 1881), where 120 teenaged Chinese boys were taken to Hartford, CT and educated- until the Chinese government, fearful the students were losing their traditions, brought them back:

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Reposted by Maurice Suckling

American Historical Association @historians.org · 14/04/2026

We need historians because evidence doesn’t explain itself. Context does not simply exist. It is built through research, interpretation, and critical analysis. What stories have you uncovered in the historical record? #TalkAboutHumanities 🗃️

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

The first two prototypes in my Historical Simulations class at @rpihass.bsky.social Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, and Scribes of Danielic Memory (some rather smart brainwork has gone into these and I’m very chuffed with what my students are showing me so far):

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Today’s game: 7-player game of Elizabeth: England Aflame. The agents in the pay of Spain and Portugal took a surprise win as the Spanish Armada landed. Playing at Circle DC convention.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Today’s game: Cabinet Noir (ministerial rivalry in Napoleon’s Empire). Played with 5 players today. Everyone lost - no one backed the winning factions and everyone accused each other of not doing enough to help the Empire. C’est la vie.

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

A new game coming, a co-design of mine on the Treaty of Portsmouth, which ended the Russo-Japanese War, being published by Fort Circle Games: www.fortcircle.com/peace-1905/

fortcircle.com

Peace 1905 – Fort Circle Games

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Today’s development: The Emperor’s Choice (my design) and The Emperor’s Voice (Wes Crawford’s design) - related games on Japan’s surrender and an attempted coup August 1945. To be published by Worthington. (All prototype art is temporary.)

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Maurice Suckling @writegameread.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Today’s game: Space Cadets. Co-op turn-based real-time hybrid:

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